The pandemic brought unprecedented challenges, affecting all sectors as well as everyone’s lives and especially of our seafarers who keep the world moving but endure months of difficulties and isolation. During the Crew Welfare Week, a unique industry event taking place 22-25 June 2021, the ship managers panel discussed about the next steps on crew change issue as well as key challenges and opportunities out of the pandemic for the maritime industry.
In this context, the Neptune Declaration, signed in early 2021, calls for increased collaboration between charterers and ship operators based on the notion that managing crew changes is a shared responsibility. During the Crew Welfare Week, a unique industry event taking place 22-25 June 2021, the ship managers panel discussed about the next steps on crew change issue as well as key challenges and opportunities out of the pandemic for the maritime industry.
The moderator of the panel, Dorothea Ioannou, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, The American Club, welcomed ship managers, Stamatis Bourboulis, General Manager, Euronav Ship Management (Hellas) Ltd; Andy Cook, Global Crew Operations Director, V.Group; Dimitris Fafalios, Managing Director, Fafalios Shipping; Boriana Farrar, Vice President – Chief Legal Officer, Patriot Contract Services, LLC; Capt. Faouzi Fradi, Group Crewing and Training Director, Columbia Shipmanagement Ltd and; Basil Sakellis, Managing Director, Alassia NewShips Management, Inc., and ask them firstly to consider which challenges arose from the pandemic with regards to crew welfare.
“From our point of view, it became clear the complete ignorance of the world with regards to seafarers’ vital contribution to the world and the global economy. Part of this ignorance is of our own, considering that several shipowners, for a variety of reasons, have historically preferred to stay underrated.”, noted Mr. Basil Sakellis who highlighted that industry has now the opportunity to finally present the role of seafarers to the world, to raise awareness and the feeling of gratefulness that we should all have towards their role.
From a seafarers’ perspective, Mr. Andy Cook said that there is plenty of uncertainty around. Since the pandemic broke out, seafarers were not able to support their family, they couldn’t go to their homes or even to get off the ship and walk at port to get their mind back on track, he said, commenting that the situation has not particularly improved today. “Now we see that their quality time, the leave period, is being squeezed –when they arrive back to their home country, they need to stay around two weeks in isolation before going back to their family and then they need to leave home up to three weeks in order to join next ship. This could have a long-term effect on the industry.”, Mr. Andy Cook explained.
Continuing, Mrs Boriana Farrar mentioned that challenges remain due to differences between the international regime and the different national regimes at port stays. As such, there are various testing, quarantine and vaccine requirements in different parts of the world. At the same time, there are port restrictions. “The biggest challenge from our perspective is the lack of uniformity in regulatory regime; this is an opportunity to spread the message across in order regulators to address this issue.”, Mrs Farrar said and added that as a result of the crew crisis, mental health is becoming increasingly important.
“The major challenge was the crew signing-in and singing-off which led to uncertainty, which is a powerful word for every seafarer as it affects their mental, physical and economic status.”, continued Mr. Dimitris Fafalios who noticed that the uncertainty for the people onboard is equally difficult for the people ashore who are expecting to join ships and support their families. “Equally important to me, was the denial of access to shore for crew medical issues, this is unacceptable. This is an infringement of basic human rights, we don’t see to be able to overcome this yet.”, he highlighted.
Mr. Stamatis Bourboulis agreed that uncertainty is one of the most serious challenges. “The fear of the pandemic overwhelmed all of us, but for the seafarers was the uncertainty of what is going to happen, when they would disembark”, he said. Furthermore, Mr Bourboulis noticed that nobody was prepared for a pandemic; not only on company level but also on government level. “We all had to somehow improvise and in general I think the outcome was successful, the response to the crisis was successful; all thanks should be given to seafarers who besides the situation and the uncertainty, ships continued to sail safely and efficiently.”, he added.
Capt. Faouzi agreed that this crisis increased a lot of pressure and revealed that crew welfare is a must. For example, internet onboard is essential in order seafarers to be eager to join ships. Also, fitness is vital considering that the new generation of seafarers want to be fit and want more entertainment onboard. What is more, mental health support is vital.
With regards to crew recruitment, Mr. Andy Cook commented that the whole crisis has impacted the image of the industry. “Young people may now think twice to join shipping as they fear of being isolated and stuck in the other side of the world. Therefore, it is an opportunity for the operators to offer services and think of the bare minimum so as people onboard not to lose contact with their families.”
However, internet onboard could also have negative impact on crew members who are isolated in the middle of the ocean when they learn bad news from their family ashore. In particular, as Mrs Boriana Farrar explained: “We have seen in the past cases where being in touch with family which in trouble and not being able to contribute somehow, had a counterproductive effect on seafarer’s mental health. In these terms, being too connected has caused negative results; in such cases, seafarers would like to quite ships to provide help to their families immediately, but unfortunately this is not feasible since the ship is in the middle of the ocean; so, we have seen cases in which people were ready to jump off the ship. The Captain and the managers should case by case discuss on how to approach this issue.”
All participants agreed that mental health is the next step for all industry stakeholders in order to commit to crew welfare and take real action. “The culture of the head offices is important towards; they should realize that a positive psychology onboard is an asset”, Mr Basil Sakellis commented.
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